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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Brat Pack is a nickname given to a group of young actors and actresses who frequently appeared together in teen-oriented coming-of-age films in the 1980s.

The term, a play on the Rat Pack from the 1950s and 1960s, was first popularized in a 1985 New York magazine cover story, which described a group of roughly interchangeable, but already highly successful and rich teen stars.[1] The group has been characterized by the excessive partying of core members such as Rob Lowe, Robert Downey, Jr., Judd Nelson and Emilio Estevez,[2] while their films have been described as representative of "the socially apathetic, cynical, money-possessed and ideologically barren eighties generation."[3][4] The movies made frequent use of adolescent archetypes, were often set in the suburbs surrounding Chicago, and focused on white, middle-class teenage angst.[5][6]

The "Brat Pack" moniker, often considered in a pejorative sense,[7][8] was not known to be used by members of the group.[9][10]

Filmography

Beyond the two primary films, the list of movies that are considered "Brat Pack" movies is as fluid as its list of members. While Blum's article credits Taps, a 1981 sleeper starring Timothy Hutton with Cruise and Penn, as the first Brat Pack movie,[1] the list of movies below represents the more traditional filmography, with each movie including at least two core members in starring roles:

Some films have been dubbed "Brat Pack movies" despite having no stars from the core membership, including 1984's Red Dawn[16] (with close contributors C. Thomas Howell, Jennifer Grey, Charlie Sheen, Harry Dean Stanton, Patrick Swayze, and Lea Thompson), and 1986's Ferris Bueller's Day Off[9] (also with Grey and Sheen in supporting roles, and starring close contributor Matthew Broderick). Many would include 1985's Weird Science, starring Brat Packer Anthony Michael Hall and close contributor Robert Downey, Jr., because it was directed by John Hughes[17] and is included in a Universal Studios "Brat Pack" box set.[18] Other 1980s films, many with similar coming-of-age themes, that starred only one core Brat Pack actor with one or more close contributors include: